The Drone
Episode 5 of All of Us Are Dead begins in the hallway, with our bathroom quartet leaving. Jang Ha-Ri has her bow and arrow and goes full-on Legolas, shooting down the infected. Although their group haven’t given up hope, those inside the broadcasting room are on the verge of doing just that. Nam-Ra notices the helicopters in the distance and despairs that they’re never going to be saved. The Korean government make a massive decision and quarantine the entire area of Hyosan and declare martial law. Although On-Jo’s father manages to make it to safety with the others, this decision from the government turns the common people against those in Hyosan. Crowds gather on the border, desperate to try and escape but those outside have grown hostile and begin pelting them with eggs and holding protests. Meanwhile, Cheong-San survives his knife attack thanks to some lucky plot armour. The handle of the knife is what strikes our protagonist, and he rushes into the library to escape. Unfortunately, Gwi-Nam is not far behind and the pair fight atop the bookshelves. Cheong-San eventually throws Gwi-Nam down to the infected, stabbing his eye and leaving him to his fate. Cheong-San does eventually manage to make it out the library and is saved at the last second by Ha-Ri and her arrows. With social media abound with rumours and numerous ill theories, on top of martial law the government decide to cut off all communications from Hyosan to the outside world. They’re on their own now. The government promise to use their resources to save as many as they can, but with no way to communicate, signals dying all over town, and Cheong-San’s captured phone on a measly 6%, things don’t look good. The group inside the broadcasting room decide to stop twiddling their thumbs and actually take some action. Specifically, they’re going to formulate a plan to save Cheong-San. Joon-yeong and On-Jo team together to find a drone and use that to locate him. With the operation a success, the drone begins flying. Using the camera mounted on it, they see first-hand just how widespread the infection actually is. They don’t notice Mi-Jin and the others in the infirmary though, who slip out and jump down to the dumpsters on the ground floor. In doing so, they narrowly miss the drone which whizzes up. The group decide to take the drone further outside the school, where they find cars smashed up – including Ji-Min’s dad’s truck. They head in for a closer look…where her parents have been infected. The drone eventually loses battery and tumbles to the floor. In town, Jae-Ik makes it into Cheong-San’s mother’s chicken shop. There, they find the baby on the seats and the infected Hee-Su still by the door, tied up. The baby is still alive though and Jae-Ik immediately sets to work trying to find some milk to stop the rate of dehydration. Meanwhile, On-Jo’s father and the rest of the group are taken to an island holding a private prison. This is a quarantine zone designed for the survivors of Hyosan. They’re being kept there and need to surrender all of their personal belongings. That includes the Congresswoman too, who is forced to follow protocol. The wait time is between 12-72 hours to be seen, and right now they’re being kept behind bars. Only, they’re not alone. Other survivors are there too, all huddled up together like cattle. We then cut back to the library. Gwi-Nam is still alive and not actually infected. According to Byeong-Chan’s overlapping narration, it appears the cells as part of this virus have evolved and mutated to such a degree that they’ve become sentient. So with Gwi-Nam, he is basically infected but a super-zombie of sorts. With a bleeding eye and a red-hot vengeance, he remains fixated on finding Cheong-San.
The Episode Review
A game changing twist completely turns the series upside down and with it, the first inklings of contrived plot points. The idea that Gwi-Nam isn’t actually dead and that the virus has managed to learn and evolve, turning him into a super-being is going into the realm of LUCA: The Beginning. It’s still intriguing but it’s also a little disheartening to learn that those with a truly evil heart can survive this, presumably anyway. On the other side of the coin, this could well be interpreted as a wider social commentary about how those awful bullies and evil men and women among them are just as bad if not worse than the zombie horde. I’ll let you be the judge of that! The story is still intriguing despite the flaws that are just starting to creep in now. The drone subplot, for example, just feels like a way of padding out run-time rather than genuinely moving the plot forward. Despite that, All of Us Are Dead has been a solid watch and it’s certainly been an enjoyable one. It’s not perfect, and at times the show is a tad too long, but there’s enough intrigue in this one to keep coming back for more.
